Weekly Approximate Knowledge Digest #1
Here we begin!
Dear subscribers,
I have long maintained that I have an “Approximate Knowledge of Many Things” due to my reading and watching the most random collection of content on the internet. Honestly, much of what I learn I also quickly forget. I thought perhaps keeping a log would be nice.
But what would be better, I thought 1.was to share these random tidbits- or rather the best of the random knowledge every week- with people who are interested in such approximate knowledge too.
Thank you so much for being a part of this journey, and here we begin!
1. Social Media & The Death of Nuance (YouTube, 20mins):
We are using so much social media these days. Is that good for us?
We know that the answer is no. And mostly when we think about this issue, we think about attention spans. But one often overlooked factors is how it affects our ability to think critically, which this video explores across multiple dimensions.
2. Five Lessons from Uncle Iroh (YouTube, 15mins):
Possibly the most liked character from the hit animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Uncle Iroh is one of those great sagely figures in fantasy. He is a mentor figure to multiple characters and presents a lot of wisdom.
Whether you have watched the show or not, you’ll find some very calming life lessons in this video.
3. Graceful Degradation (Instagram, 2mins):
You’ve most probably heard of planned obsolescence. But have you heard of its opposite? Graceful degradation is a design principle where a system is designed to retain functionality even when parts of it has broken down.
These images contain the concept and two examples of the principle in practice.
4. Does GDP per capita really make sense as a metric of prosperity? (YouTube, 17mins):
GDP per capita has been used as an indicator of prosperity of a nation for a long time. But is this really a good measure? The video explores this question in detail, mentioning the alternatives we have so far and why those also fall short.
What can we create to act as a better indicator?
Bonus: Here’s Nikita Redkar on how the inventor of GDP regrets his invention (Instagram, 1:30mins):
5. Ethnogenesis (Instagram, 2 mins):
There are ideas so deeply baked into western thinking that we don’t even notice them. We simply absorb them. One such idea is ethnogenesis- the idea that ethnic identities are fixed.
Learn more and break out of this wrong frame of mind here.
And there goes week 1 of my approximate knowledge digest!
I hope this has enriched your day (even if just a little), and if so please tell your friends. Hope to get some more interesting pieces of content to you next week.
Cheers.